Two long-time artists/ friends with Westside ties are setting up shops on this side of town, with simultaneous grand openings the weekend of Feb. 25-26 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Deb Komitor, a Westside resident who has been renting studio space at the Cottonwood Center for the Arts for her pottery and painting endeavors, is moving her studio to the Old Midland School building, 815 S. 25th St.
Laura Reilly, a painter who had a gallery in Old Colorado City from 2005 to 2009, is leasing a former “horse alley” unit at 2522 W. Colorado Ave., where she plans to paint as well as sell her paintings.
The motivational difference between the two artists is that Komitor wanted space to work on larger paintings, whereas Reilly is finalizing a project of smaller works.
“In the early '80s, when I was in grad school in Fort Collins, there was an abandoned old brick school house and every time I drove past it I always thought it would make a great studio,” Komitor said in an e-mail. “Now I have that studio! I love all the old woodwork, the tin ceilings, the wall of tall windows, the
creaks in the floor boards. There was even artwork of past school kids in the drawers when I moved in.”
Interviewed by phone, Reilly said she hadn't really planned to have a gallery again. After closing her Old Town gallery, she'd been at Cottonwood and has most recently been working from her home. But looking for a temporary site to present her “100 for $100” small-paintings show, she saw the 2522 space and
“spontaneously fell in love with it,” she said. “I guess having a gallery again has been in the back of my mind.”
Reilly plans eventually to be open most afternoons, but hasn't set a schedule yet. For more information, call 650-1427.